Lawn mower



J. W. PETERS May 6 1.924.

LAWN MOWER 1921 -5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 30 May e, 1924. f 1,493,223

J. W. PETERS LAWN MOWER Filed July 50 1921 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 .1@ trolledby the operator citent May 6, 124.

JOHN' W. PETERS, 0E' ROSLYN, NEW YORK.'

EAWN MOWER.

Application filed July 80, 1921. Serial No. 488,675.

To all lwhom it may concern.:

Be it known that I, JOHN W.l Parme, a citizen of the United States,residing at Bosl n, in the county of Nassau and State e of ew York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Lawn Mowers, of whichthe following is a disclosure.

In my prior application, Serial No. 449,258, I have disclosed anelectric lawn mower comprising a spring retracted reel mounted on themower and carrying a flexible power cable adapted to be connected at itsfree end to any available power circuit, the motor being ided and conymeans of a handle. In operating this machine vit is necessary for, theoperator to follow it` throughout the cutting operation. In order toobviate this I designed the machine described in application Serial No.449,259, which is not only supplied with current but is guided andsteered by the operator through a lexible cable, and its operationinvolves no physical eiort or walking on the part of the operator. Thismachine is particularly adapted for, cutting lawns having open levelareas comparatively free from 4terraces and obstructions. The inventionnow to be described is an improvement on I0 the machines referred to inthat itis particularly adapted for cutting lawns comprising terracesland inclines and obstructed by flower beds, walks, etc. It ischaracterized by anew arrangement whereby the operator controls themachine through a handle or arm and is enabled to cut the grass in hisimmediate vicinity without walking or material physical eort, but isforced to follow the machine in its general direction of travel. Theinvention will be readily understood from a description of the preferredembodiment shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the machine; Fig. la is a detail plan Viewpartially in section, on line '1a-fla, Fig. 1.

Fig. 2 is a plan view with the outer end of the handle broken away. VFig. 3 is a sectional view taken on the line w 3 3 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 isa sectional View on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2 showing the connectingmechanism between the handle and the reversing clutches.

FFig. 5 is a part sectional view on line 5--5, 55

-Fig. 6 is a plan 'view similar to' Fig. 2, with the exception that thehandle is shown operating at right angles to the mower.

Fig. 7 is a cross section on line 7-7, 60

eferring in detail to the structure shown, the mower comprises sideframes 1 and 2 between which are mounted the rotating knives 3 and fixedknife 4. The pro- 65 pelling'wheels 4a are fixed to the axle', the outerends of which are .journaled inthe side frames l and 2 as shown. Thepropellingmotor 6 is connected through worm gear 7 to a shaft 8 whichcarries bevelgear 70 9 at its outer end. Bevel gear 9 meshes with twobevel gears 10 both of which are free to turn on the axle5 when theclutches 11 are out. These clutches are slidably mounted on the axle andare thrown into and out of'engagement with the gears by the yokes 12connected to each other by the bar 13. A slight turn ot the arm 14,which is connected to the connecting rod 15 by gear 16 and rack 17,turns'the bell crank 18 on its pivot 19 and brings the desired clutchinto operation. One clutch and gear operates the-propelling Wheels inone direction and the other clutch and gear operates them in the reversedirection. The arm 14 may be turned by a slight turn of the. hand piece38 by the operator or it may be automatically turned sol as to reversethe direction of travel of the machine after it has traveled apredetermined distance by the operation of the pin `20 in the slot 21..

'It is to be noted that ythe slot 21 forms a closed loop as is shown inFig. 1, with an axially inclined portion at each end, thus providing aforward and return slot in parallel relation, the inclined portions ofthe slot causing approximately a one quarter turn of the arm 14 wheneverpin 20 traverses one of them, this movement being sufcient to engageeither the right or left clutch 12 in operation. For convenience, theclutches 12 are shown in the drawings in the neutral position, exceptingin Fig. 5 in which, one of the clutches is engaged with one of thedriving gears 1K0. It is to be 105 noted further, that thc knuckle jointbetween the arm 14 andinner telescoping member 26.*' is provided with@slight play,

. bent over rod and pivotall as shown in Fig. la, whereby' the handlebeing out of alignment with arm 14, .the

knuckle joint acts suiiiciently like a univer-` sal joint to transmitfrom member 26c to arm 14 the slight turn that is necessary to engagethe clutches with the gears. The handle 38 may operate at times nearlyin alignment with the arm 14, for which condition a horizontal griphandle 38a is rovided. The pin y is fixed to the outer tube of thetelescoping handle and the slot 21 is curved .in opposite directions atits ends so that as the pin reaches the end of its travel in eitherdirection it turns the arm 14 and reverses the direction of travel ofthe machine.` The arm 14 is -pivoted on the fixed hollow upright 22 byrotatable sleeve 23 yso that the handle can be rotatedV in a horizontalplane with respect to the body of the machine, as shown in Fig. 6, themember 22 being fixed to pedestal 24 bolted to thev base plate 25 asshown in Fig. 4, and the rack 17 bein connecte thereto by screw 15a topermit t e rack and associatedparts to swing about rod 15. The handlemay be fixed against rotation about member 22 by set screw 26 and notch26, and if desired the outer and inner telescoping members 26b and 26crespectively of the handle mabe secured to each other by set screw 27.ower is supplied to the motor through cable 28 wound on reel 29 mountedpreferably-near the outer end of the handle. The outer end of cable 28is attached to any convenient electric light socket and when the poweris turned on as by switch 30, the machine may be made -to propel itselfto its place of work, reeling out cable 28 as it goes. When the grass tobe out is reached, the operator, by holding the hand piece stationary,can cause the machine automatically to run back and forth and can giveit a slight side movement so as to cut over a new course on each outwardstroke by moving the handle sideways. If `he desiresto make a shorterstroke than that dictated by the length of the slot 21, he cando this bygiving the handle 38 a slight turn. If deslred, as in cutting terraces,the control handle can be set at rlght angles to the machine andoperated backand forth entirely bv turning the handle 38. When the workhas been nished the machine may be returned to its place of storageunder its own power and as the machine travels, the operator manuallywinds the cable 28 on the reel as by handle 39.

It will be noted that the rotatingknives Y 3 are driven through gears40, shaft 41,

vel gears 42 from the shaft 8, and run in one direction irrespective ofthe directionl of travel of the machine.

.Having now described my invention, what I claim is:

l. A lawn mower comprising a frame, a

escasas ated by relative movement between said-f part and the frame forreversing the direction of motion of the frame. v

2. A lawn mower comprising a frame, a propellinof motor mounted on saidframe, a controlj arm connected to said frame, means whereby thedirection of travel of the mower may be reversed, and means carried bysaid arm whereby said reversing means may be rendered automaticallyoperative or may be disabled at will.

3. A lawn mowerl comprising a frame, an electric motor mounted on said.frame, means whereby said motor may drive said frame in eitherdirection, a control arm connected to said frame, a handle carried bysaid control arm, a reel supported from said frame, a flexible cablewound on the reel and having its free end adapted to be attached to apower line, a conductor extending from the reel to the motor, and meansoperated by maintaining said handle stationary while the frame is inmotion in either direction whereby the direction of travel of the frameis reversed.

4. A lawn mover comprising a frame, a motor mounted on said frame, meanswhereby said motor may drive said frame in either direction, a controlarm connected to said frame, a handle carried by said control arm, andmeans operated by maintaining said handle stationary while the frame is1n motion in either direction whereby the direction of travel of themower is reversed.

5. A lawn mower comprising a frame, a motor mounted on said frame, meanswhereby said motor may drivev said frame in elther direction, a controlarm connected to said frame, a handle carried by said control arm, andmeans operated by maintaining said handle stationary while the frame isin motion in either direction whereby the direction of travel of themower is reversed, said reversing means being operated also uponrotation of said handle. y

4 6. A lawn mower comprising propelling wheels, a motor mounted thereonand geared to the wheels, and a control arm mounted on the mower by apivot -connection and adapted to twist on itslongitudinal axis,

and means whereby twisting said arm operof said arm may reverse the'direction of motion of the mower.

8. A lawn mower comprising a frame, a

4propelling motor and a telescoping" control 10 mower after farmextending from the frame to the operator in combination with meanswhereby telescopin movements of said arm reverse the directmn of travelof the mower.

9. A lawn mower comprising a frame, a

i propelling motor and a telescoping control arm extending from themower to the operator in combmation'with automatic means for reversingthe direction of 'travel of the redetermined motion in either direction,an means whereby the operator JOHN W. PETERS

